Press Anxiety

* The collective anxiety attack suffered by the folks attending this year’s American Society of Newspaper Editors is justified (April 15). They have strayed from their foundation of printing facts and truth to the point where they are now uncertain about how to deal with it. They have established a depressing, negative tone to their stories that they apparently do not know how to correct. Yet they do not seem to understand why readers’ opinions of the press continue to deteriorate.

These stressed-out editors are going to have to do some serious soul-searching to find their way out of this mess. One thing they might do is to sit down for a few moments and contemplate the statement Paul Newman made at the Academy Awards in March: “I think we’re reminded too frequently about the things that don’t work in this country and not enough about the things that do.”

Granted, it would only be a start. But a good start.

RON SALMONS

Pacific Palisades